Inversion IPA from Deschutes. That stuff totally has a caramel to it. It has a 'wort' flavor in it as well, as if they reinfuse wort post fermentation which adds that slightly toasted caramel flavor to the palate. Tastes more like homebrew than anything other commercial brew i know of. they must be doing something to it...does any one know?

Beer Trader

LOL, I think a $30+ bottle may be pushing it if OP is just trying to get their feet wet in a new style. Scotch ales are a good recommendation... quite a few barleywines feature caramel malts in their grain bill as well. If you like IPAs, I'd definitely recommend checking out hoppy ambers like Troegs Nugget Nectar, Maine Beer Co's Zoe, or especially imperials like Lagunitas Lucky 13 when it's available.

For great caramel flavors try the Scotch Ales as mentioned by others in this post -- the process of making that style creates toffee notes from caramelizing the malt. And I agree with williamjbauer -- try getting your malty caramel fill from Founders Dirty Bastard. Oh yeah.

Pretty much anything aged in a brandy barrel has developed caramel notes in my experiences. Also, barrel aged barley wines hit caramel notes for me a large percentage of the time. The founders mentions above were pretty spot on.

The malt spectrum of syrup to caramel to vanilla tends to predominantly consist in brown ales, scottish ales, and barleywines. Obviously, brewers can do whatever they want--but generally speaking, I'd search out some good beers within those styles. Also (just my opinion) don't go with beers that say "caramel" or "vanilla" on them. Most of them use exorbitant amount of adjuncts to try and achieve that flavor--but they tend to go overboard, resulting in an overly sweet beer (again, my opinion). Instead, look for a beer that already has that natural malt complex. I think you'll enjoy the subtleties of a sweetness that's intrinsic to any given malt more so than the overt sweetness of added flavors.